Released into Early Access recently, Age of Grit gives Steampunk a little cowboy-themed makeover with turn-based airship combat and it's supporting Linux too.

Another game crowdfunded on Kickstarter, where Age of Grit managed to get funded back in 2014 so it's been in development for quite a while now. Nearly five years after the end of the Kickstarter and it's entered Early Access on Steam.

In Age of Grit you play the captain of an old, beat-up, steam-powered airship. You and your crew adventure across a vast, cowboy-themed, steampunk world simply known as "The West." You're looking for whatever work you can find--bounty hunting, smuggling contraband, running guns...maybe even a little train robbery if yer so inclined. 'Bout anything to pay the bills, keep the guns loaded, the boiler stoked, and keep your ship in the sky!

Travel from one Wild West town to the next, meeting interesting characters. A few might have a job to offer or cargo for you to haul. Others might be fixin' to just shoot you where you stand. At its core, Age of Grit is about the people you meet, what story they have to tell, and how you choose to interact with them.

The first thing they need to do is offer a better starting point for players. The way it just dumps you into the game is a little confusing at first, especially as the interface isn't overly clear. It does have a pretty short help menu but at some-point a more thorough tutorial is going to be needed. Very stylish though, it does look great with a lot of nice little steampunk themed touches.

The conversations you can have are a little odd too. In Age of Grit you don't setup your own character, instead you're a character who is already a part of and familiar with the world. A lot of people I talked to, the options given to talk about seemed like I should know more about the world than I do. I didn't mind much, it was interesting to learn a bit more about what's been going on but it just felt strange. Like starting a story in the middle somewhat.

You fly around and trade goods, pick up quests, upgrade your airship and it's all wrapped up in a great old-western steampunk style. From what I've played so far, it is sadly a little unstable. It's crashed on me more than once (luckily it kept the progress though, so it's not a showstopper) and the performance suddenly drops when you go into your inventory. Issues are to be expected since it's in development though.

I definitely enjoyed it and they have an awesome base here to expand upon, so I will take another good luck once it's a bit more stable and further developed to let you know how it's looking.

You can find Age of Grit on Steam in Early Access. They're estimating it to be ready to launch in full by Q4 2020, so they have plenty of time to improve and expand on it.

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